Sunday, January 14, 2007

Unplanned

Ever had anything that went totally unplanned? Like, you plan to do "A" and "B" crops up, tadah, u ended up doing "C". Rather confusing isn't it? Ok, it is.

Lets say, a normal situation for a teenager: "you planned to finish your homework tonight, but you caught a rather interesting advertisement and stayed glued to the tv to watch the next programme, and the next thing you know, you are on your XBOX 360 slashing animals. "

Great. There goes the entire evening doing useless stuff, and you will be too tired to finish any of your assignments dealt by your evil teachers. How I wish human comes with a stronger mind. Maybe the next-generation IVF(test tube babies) could help with that, the bonus added to attract costumer.

I could almost imagine IVF ads on the main page of LIFE now "Genders not enough? A stronger mind had been added if you choose our artificial fertilisation plan -- withouth charges. *terms and conditions apply*" ok. I am digressing.

Anyway, I was planning for a homework night on this good ol saturday and spent the entire sunday tutoring a child (for 1.5 hrs only la!) and doing my AEP and Science project. Thats a hell lot of drawings to settle :) . What happened? At the perfect hour of 3 am, I woke up, realising I missed my dinner. It took me a while to realise that I overslept completely. I mean like 12 hours of sleep. Perhaps I was too tired over the weekdays. Year 4 life isn't as easy and satisfying as Year 3 life. And now, I am blogging with 0 homework done. There is still 5 more hours before I go to the kids house to tutor him. Before that, I shall finish my homework. or sleep. (since I did most of my homework in school).

Things do go unplanned, studying for a test may easily turn into a lord of the rings marathon session when we have too much time on hand. Don't you agree that we will only work real hard if the tests are just the next day (or maybe the next hour)? The urgency of the matter seems to be able to trigger the our mind, and allow us to work hard. But at the end of the day, it will not really yield good results. Maybe thats why I 've always liked (still unable to abide), the scouts motto: Be Prepared.

Imagine any situation that you are always prepared, you are always expecting the unexpected. We will have an edge over the others just by being prepared. And how do we be prepared? It takes a hell lot of discipline to sit down and tell yourself rationally that the homework is totally more important than your girlfriend on the phone. At the time of relaxation, we tend to put fun stuff at the top of our "priority list" that exist subconsciously in our mind. The key here is to switch the positions of your priorities in your mind, convincing yourself.

Take for example, your test will be on the next week. Normally, you will cram for it the day before, or two days before. If you are smart, you will do well (and forget everything after that), if you are not that smart, you will flunk your test and wished you started earlier. The same cycle will go on even in you are in the working class, dishing out rushed out assignments that will never drive you forwad. We, teenagers, need to set the foot right. Right from the day of today, we must always keep in mind that "tomorrow" never comes, the mindset that "i will start from tomorrow" will work most of the time is a fallacy. What will actually works is " I will start today", it forces you into the swing of moment, to enter a cycle of efficiency. Perhaps, we should take this weekend to sit down and think through the list of things we have to complete by a certain deadline, arrange them into a list in order of priority. We must have a clear and rational mind when doing this. For example, we should consider if the project, which is dued 6 months later , needs to be started early as it stands 50 percent of our assessment. Thus the priority list should not just be according to date.